Pyriform
by dw77
Summary: The events of the war would unveil a tragedy hidden by the mists of time, a story of trust and betrayal, of madness and salvation, and of fate defied against overwhelming odds. What follows is a record of this conflict; and of those who fought, lived and died. -Carmine Nix, Damocles Fallen, a history of the Great Grimm War.
1. Prologue

Prologue:

* * *

15 years ago; Szmaragd Ruins; Drakis

* * *

In the midst of a flurry of effort, a tiger faunus emerges from a tent quickly followed by a young man, his green hair contained by a pith helmet, his frame obscured by a large brown greatcoat; the tiger faunus turns as he is addressed by the other man.

"Thanksconcentrateonthesouthernclifftomorrow; becarefulthegroundthereishard, sobecarefulwhenyoudig."

"Um..."

"I hope you will pardon my young friend here, he's rather excited to finally be here." a grey haired mustachioed man in a matching grey and yellow suit said as he emerged from the same tent. "Now if you could focus your efforts on the northern cliff tomorrow we would appreciate it. It's going to be hard work so take the necessary precautions."

"Yes sir. Thank you sir." The faunus said before turning and walking off.

"Bart; I can understand your excitement, but you must understand that most people cannot understand you when you speak that fast." Dr. Watts said as he scolded the younger man.

"I-I'll try Arthur." Adjunct Professor Bartholomew Oobleck responded.

"It's perfectly fine to be excited Bart, a find like this will put you on the fast track to that doctorate you've been working for."

"Dr. Watts! Mr. Oobleck!" another man shouted running up to them

"Professor." Bart mumbled under his breath earning a sideways glance from the older man beside him

"What is it? Have you found something?" Dr. Watts asked.

"Yes, we followed the corridor from behind keep, it matches the location described in Mr. Oobleck's paper."

"What? Showmewhereitis." Bart began before pausing "Could you please show us?"

The other man merely turned and started back the way he had come before speaking again as the two academics followed behind. "It's different from the others; it only seems to have cosmetic damage."

"Well now; It seems that doctorate is even closer than I had thought. Congratulations Bart. I can't wait to study this new discovery." Dr. Watts stated as they walked up to a standing plinth that started glowing as the two Aura users approached it.

"Arthur... Have you ever seen anything like this?" Bartholomew asked his colleague as they stopped having noticed the glow only to see Dr. Arthur Watts rushing forward.

"I-It's working! Bart! It's actually working!" Dr. Watts exclaimed as he slowed to a stop right in front of the plinth. "Do you realize what this means?"

"W-we've found..." Bartholomew trailed off; "This... this changes everything..."

"This proves that the ancients weren't just incredible architects... My father was right!" Dr. Watts said just before he jumped as he heard a beep come from the glowing pedestal before him.

 **"Wykryto zakwalifikowane Lwy. Funkcjonalność Scarecrow na poziomie siedmiu procent. Inicjowanie napraw."**

"What was that?" one of the workers asked even as he started edging away from the pedestal.

"I-it sounded almost like old Vacuoan..." Bart said even as the statement began to repeat itself "Detect... something... Lion... Function... Scarecrow... something... seven percent... something... repair?"

"As much as I would like to investigate this further Bart... we need to call this in. We are going to need some engineers from Atlas to help study this... Scarecrow." Dr. Watts said as he turned to head back to camp, "I'll go report it , you stay here and record everything it says, we might be able to get a better translation from a linguist."

After hearing an affirmation from his younger colleague Dr. Arthur Watts walked away with a spring in his step. This was better than anything he had expected to find; not only would this revolutionize the known history of civilization on Remnant. This discovery would clear his father's name Wallace Watts would no longer be remembered as 'Wacky Watts'. As far as Dr. Watts was concerned; there was nothing that could ruin this. His father was redeemed and everyone involved would go down in history. _'I hope you're smiling up there Dad.'_ he thought as he sat down to send his message via the long distance connection.

Surprise find at dig site STOP Functional technology discovered STOP Takes appearance of a pedestal STOP Requesting engineer support STOP Awaiting response STOP

After sending his message Dr. Watts sat back waiting for the response, and he was rather happy he didn't have to wait long, after all this 'Scarecrow'was just waiting for him; at least until he saw the content of the response.

Waiting on orders from council STOP Hold until further notice STOP

"That's odd..." Watts thought confused; "there's no reason they should need to be bothered with this..." It was while pondering this that Dr Watts fell asleep while still on the bench.

* * *

Early the next morning Dr. Watts bolted awake hearing a commotion outside the tent he was in. Rapidly getting up he stumbled out into the early morning light to see a couple of bullheads loading equipment, even as an Atlesian airship floated lazily in the sky.

"What's going on here?" Dr. Watts demanded of one of the workers passing by him.

"The council decided to pull the plug on this expedition Dr. Watts."

"What? Why?" Dr. Watts demanded, everything here was wrong.

"All I know is that we are not to reveal this to anybody."

"So they just want to hide all this?" Dr. Watts said anger lacing his tone.

"That's what it looks like." The man replied before rushing off.

Looking around he quickly spotter an Atlesian soldier standing guard near one of the bullheads, pushing through the busy mass of people Dr. Watts quickly made his way over to the soldier. "Soldier I wish to speak with your commanding officer."

"I'm sorry sir but Specialist Ironwood is currently unavailable, If you want I can see to getting you an audience later today."

"BULLSHIT. I am Dr. Arthur Watts one of the men who commissioned this expedition. I demand to see Specialist Ironwood now so that I may find out just why he is shutting down MY EXPEDITION"

"I'm sorry Sir but..." the soldier was cut off

"It is alright soldier, I've just finished speaking with Dr. Watts colleague," A tall man with black hair said as he addressed the soldier guarding the bullhead, before he turned his attention to the rather irate doctor in front of him. "If you could follow me Dr. Watts. I believe I have some answers to questions you would very much like to ask."

After following him for a minute or so, they reached an empty tent, everything already having been stripped, leaving them to their privacy.

Turning around Specialist Ironwood began to speak. "Dr. Watts I am sure you have many..." before he was cut off by the professor.

"Why has the council decided to stop this expedition? I better get a satisfactory answer from you, _specialist_ or so help me..."

"Straight to the point I see. I can appreciate that, so I'll get right to it as well."

"Well?"

"This device that you have found has been deemed a threat to human survival and the councils have decided that the proper course of action is to destroy it without any further delay."

* * *

I hope you all enjoyed the prologue to Pyriform. I don't know when the next chapter will come out but be assured that I have the general plot laid out already. Please leave a review I'd love to see what you think.


	2. The War Begins

_It was only a year after the decimation of the capitol of the kingdom of Vale, that Vacuo launched a full scale invasion of the weakened kingdom of Vale. What followed proved that even wounded there was a reason why the Kingdom had earned the title 'Unconquered'. With both Atlas and Mistral destabilized Vacuo launched an invasion of the western edge of the kingdom, expecting little resistance; only to be met with surprising ferocity by the militant group known as 'Broken Moon'._

 _The events of the war would unveil a tragedy hidden by the mists of time, a story of trust and betrayal, of madness and salvation, and of fate defied against overwhelming odds. What follows is a record of this conflict; and of those who fought, lived and died.  
-Carmine Nix, Damocles Fallen, a history of the Great Grimm War._

* * *

 **Atlesian Army Base, Southern Atlas**

Ruby Rose set her tray down as she joined her team as well as what remained of team JNPR at the mess hall table. as she sat down she glanced over at Nora who still hadn't recovered from Jaune's... disappearance... her team had really become a new family for the girl, and now all she had left of her second family was Ren. All anyone knew was that Jaune had run after Arthur Watts to prevent the man from seizing the Relic, then before anyone could break off to help him there was a bright flash and both men were gone, leaving nothing but a cracked relic on the ground where they had stood.

After this happened Hazel, Emerald and Mercury were quick to retreat, without Doctor Watts their plan was forfeit, leaving the group of friends down yet another member. It wasn't long after they started their search that Ozpin told them that it was pointless; the full power of the relic had drained through the bodies of the two men, there was no way to know what had happened, never before had that much magic been unleashed on anyone... and it probably wasn't good for either of the two men.

As much as she wanted to believe otherwise uncle Qrow was probably right when he said "Nobody could have survived that." Nothing could convince Nora of that though. Ruby was broken out of her reverie when Yang called out to her.

"Ruby, are you okay? You haven't touched your food since you sat down."

"I'm fine... I was just lost in thought."

"Was it about Jaune again?" Weiss asked, "You know there was nothing we..." she said before trailing off into silence.

"No... Well sort of; it's just... Jaune, Pyrrha, Penny... Mom... how many people are we going to lose to this war?"

The table went silent as though the air had been sucked out the room. "I-I'm sorry; I didn't mean to... I'll just go now." Ruby Hastily got up observing the pained expressions on the faces around her, she quickly left the mess hall and returned to roaming about the Atlesian barracks Ozpin and Qrow had dragged them to so they could confer with General Ironwood because of some kind of emergency that Ironwood hadn't seen fit to inform the rest of them on. It was as she thought this that she saw Ozpin and Uncle Qrow pass through a pair of sliding doors following after Ironwood as he was flanked by Winter Schnee and some other girl with a shock of orange hair. But before any further detail could be discerned the door closed behind them obscuring the view.

* * *

 **Ironwood's office, Atlesian Army base**

"Thank you for the escort, Specialist Schnee can handle security from here, you can return to assisting Dr. Polendina now." Ironwood said dismissing his other escort.

"Sir; Yes Sir!" She quickly replied before breaking off and heading down another hall.

"So Jimmy care to enlighten us as to what was so important that you couldn't share it with us until we got to this frozen wasteland?" Qrow interrupted before the general could turn to address the gathered crowd.

"Show some respect, Qrow." Winter quickly snapped.

"Specialist Schnee we don't have time for your petty rivalry with Qrow." Ozpin spoke "If General Ironwood needed us here immediately the situation must be most dire."

"If only this were a casual gathering, but the news I have is dire. While we fought against Salem and the White Fang both in Mistral and here in Atlas, Vacuo has been busy, They've amassed an army near their shared border with the Kingdom of Vale. We expect them to launch an invasion any day now and with Mistral unable to render aid, and the Atlesian Military spread thin fighting the increase in Grimm attacks I fear Vale will fall within the month."

"But don't they understand that will only make things worse?" Oscar exclaimed losing his composure and momentarily overpowering Ozpin

"Forgive my young host," Ozpin said regaining control and composing himself once again; "I am afraid Oscar has yet to be exposed to the realm of politics. Needless to say however he is right, this plays straight into Salem's favor, is there any chance she is behind it?"

At this Specialist Schnee spoke up "While we haven't been able to entirely rule out Salem or her minion's hand in these affairs it looks to be instigated more by the remnants of the Valean council that escaped the near destruction of the city last year. They fled to Vacuo and have since been trying to regain their position of power Vale but so far have been unable to do so, as the people see them as cowards fleeing Vale in her hour of need."

"I can't say I disagree with them, but what about this invasion, is there anything we can do?" Qrow asked while being glared at by Winter. "I fail to see anything our little group can do to avert a war."

"Unfortunately there is precious little we can do to stop the invasion right now we have to hope that the southern Valean Militia will be able to hold the line until the situation here or in Mistral stabilizes. However that isn't the only pressing issue in the Kingdom of Vale." Ironwood stated as he turned to face Oscar

"I presume that this is why you've called us?" Ozpin inquired

"Indeed, it appears that an ancient cult has resurfaced, are you familiar with the Order of the Golden Sigil?"

At the mention of the group, Oscar's face twisted into a grimace; "Unfortunately yes, I am, centuries ago the Kingdoms, at the behest of the Church of Balance, attempted to wipe them out for their _heresy._ It appears they failed."

"Why are they so important? Aren't they just another group of crazy cultists? I don't think that's much of a threat, why not just send some grunts to deal with it Ironwood?"

"If they are right, it invalidates everything the kingdoms have been doing to fight the Grimm for the last thousand years."

You could hear a pin drop in the silence that filled the room.

* * *

 **Near the Valean Vacuoan border, Sanus  
**  
Sergeant Aloysius Brown of the Vacuoan army sat at his desk, in front of the map detaining the invasion plans, rubbing his temples to nurse his growing headache as he spoke with barely concealed exasperation; "Corporal, would you please repeat what you just said, I'm not certain I heard you right."

"Sir! High command has decided that since minimal resistance and therefore minimal casualties is expected that the bulk of our medical capability will be held in reserve." Corporal Slate replied

"And why pray tell does command think the battle will go easily?"

"The Valean army is sapped of most of its strength fighting off the grimm hordes that surround the capitol city," Corporal Slate said as he began to gesture at several points in the invasion plan, "and by the time they'd be able to put together an effective defense our analysts project we will already be at the gates of the capitol, the only opposition is expected to be parts of the Valean Militia."

"Let's pray then" Sergeant Brown said as he turned to look at his men milling throughout the camp, "that the Valeans aren't able to pull another miracle out of their asses like they did in the last war."

* * *

 **Small Island South West of Vytale Isle**

A yellow cloaked figure exited from behind a curtain and approached a podium in front of a large crowd, his face hidden behind an expressionless golden mask, and as he approached the podium quiet swept over those assembled on the ground before him, even as the previous man, dressed in mauve stepped aside and gave him the chance to speak.

"I wish to thank all of you, you and your ancestors, men and women, who, despite the hatred, the doubt, the suspicion and outright persecution that came with your beliefs stayed strong in your convictions. For over a thousand years you've struggled to discover the secrets of our ancestors, the tools and weapons they used, in the hopes that their knowledge can be of use in exterminating the Grimm. Now is the time, even as I speak our factories in northern Vale are delivering machines and tools based on the designs that you have recovered."

The Yellow cloaked figure waited as the cheering died down.

"Unfortunately I have dire news, the Vacuoan council has decided, at the urging of the traitorous Valean council, to invade the kingdom of Vale, rather than turn their might against the common threat to us all they turn their sword against their own brethren. I ask you will we let this stand!"

" **NO!** " came the thundering reply

"Then I ask will you follow me to WAR!" the yellow figure asked as the curtain behind him fell to reveal several large mobile artillery pieces.

" **TO** **WAR! WAR! WAR!"** chanted the crowd as the figure in yellow turned back toward the artillery behind him.

" _This sounds too familiar."_ he thought as a grimace crossed his face unseen by all.

"My lord Gold?" the man in mauve said as he approached the masked man.

"What is it Mauve?"

"It appears the Atlesians have learned of our presence."

"Then they've learned too late to change anything. Our war begins today."

* * *

 **Hello Everyone I hope you enjoyed the first real chapter of Pyriform, I'm sorry it took so long for me to come out with this chapter, but I became fascinated by working out a massive amount of backstory that will be revealed over time. If you have any suggestions of comments please leave a review, I would love to know what I need to do better.  
Thanks  
**


	3. A Odd Individual

_"There is much that I have seen in my life, surely there is much more I have yet to see. But if you were to ask me what the most defining moment in my life was, I would have to say the war against Vale. At the time I was just a silly young fool, I thought I knew everything, heck I was ready to cast aside the faith of my ancestors, after all who needed the old church and their focus on 'balance'? As far as I was concerned those stories were for kids, no real adult could possibly be duped by that kind of crock. I was wrong. We thought we had the militia pinned. we thought the war was going to be as easy as the council claimed it would be. Then the thunder came and I finally understood the teachings of the church._

 _When the thunder came, there was no balance._

 _and where there is no balance there is only_ _death."_ \- Sergeant (Ret) Robert "Rob" Taupher, Vacuoan Expeditionary Forces

* * *

Velvet Scarlatina knelt in front of the improvised cleaning station, removing the dust and grime from the photograph she had in front of her, it was all that was left that could be found showing the faces of a family where the mother had been the only survivor. Looking at the image, Velvet found herself beginning to tear up for what had to be the thousandth time since she started helping with the memorial. As the image was cleared of the dirt obscuring it, she could see that it was one of a young girl about to blow out the candles on her birthday cake, with her older brother, and father watching. Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last Velvet wondered just how much pain her fellow citizens had suffered. finishing cleaning the photo Velvet took a short break reclining in her chair and looking at the other volunteers helping despite their own pain, how many loved ones had these men and women lost? Most of the volunteers were simple civilians, people who couldn't protect themselves when the time came, people who had suffered so much more than she had.

Still seeing them all working together Velvet found herself feeling a renewed sense of hope.

Who would've thought Cardin would be the one to unite man and faun to a common cause, even when the White Fang's involvement in the disaster had been so blatant.

It was then that an alarm from her scroll shattered the calm of the early morning.

Velvet saw Cardin, and Sky jump and run out of the former city hall even as she herself got into motion and found herself joined by Coco as they raced toward the northern wall of the city where the alarm had come from.

Restoration could wait, the defense of the city came first.

* * *

Glynda Goodwitch had arrived at the northern wall as quickly as she could manage glad to see it already manned by the majority of the huntsmen and former Atlesian Soldiers who had stayed behind after the Vytal festival catastrophe to help rebuild. Tensions still remained high between the two groups to this day, though they still fought side by side whenever a threat appeared.

Looking past the men and women before her she could barely see a mass of dark shapes, obscured as they were by the cloud of dust being thrown up. Hearing the thunder of vehicles in the distance; Glynda quickly ordered a pair of binoculars from a nearby soldier, she lifted them to her eyes and saw the mass of unfamiliar vehicles lumbering across the landscape in the distance as they approached the city, upon some of them she could clearly see a yellow symbol emblazoned upon a black background, it was shaped almost like a tetrahedron seen from one of the corners, one point pointing down.

"Hold your fire; men. We don't know if they are friend or foe." Glynda ordered, she dearly hoped it was the former and not the latter, Vale couldn't afford an enemy to the north as well as the west.

"Ma'am!" A Former Atlesian soldier cried to get her attention before handing her his scroll, "There's a small Bullhead requesting to land. They claim to represent the army to the north."

It took Glynda a moment as she read over the info; "Let them land, and take me to their landing site, if there is any chance to avoid fighting I want to take it. Keep an eye out, and Corporal?"

"Yes Ma'am?"

"If anything happens to me, give them hell."

* * *

Thankfully the landing site of the bullhead was only about five minutes away from where she had been, so she arrived at the site just in time to see the men and women aboard the bullhead begin to disembark. While she waited for this process to finish, she let her eyes wander over the craft in front of her, at first glance it appeared to be a standard bullhead painted black, with that odd triangular sigil on the sides, but on closer inspection it was clear that this ship was meant for VIPs, heavier armor to enhance the amount of damage it could take, and bigger more powerful engines, both to support the added bulk and to aid in the rapid escape of said VIP, oddly though the armament was rather light, enough to repel small Nevermores and other common flying Grimm, but not what you would expect aboard an otherwise purely militaristic craft.

It wasn't long however before a gold draped figure emerged from the inside and greeted her. "Miss Goodwitch I presume? A pleasure to meet you, I am Gold, the leader of the order of the Golden Sigil."

Glynda eyed the masked figure appraisingly, and then said "What is your purpose here, Mr. Gold?"

"Straight to the point, I can respect that," Gold said, bemusement writ in his tone. "I assure you, Miss Goodwitch, I am not here to attack Vale, rather the men I lead are hoping to help defend her against this unwarranted aggression from Vacuo, and as such, I was hoping to negotiate safe passage to the south around the eastern edge of the city, given that the closer we are to the city, the easier it is for us to aid our fellows in the Broken Monn militia from this unwarranted invasion.

"And it is also a prime position for you to backstab us from." Glynda replied. "Why should I trust you or your people? I have never even heard of the Order of the Golden Sigil"

"I don't suppose you would have, the church was very happy to bury any records of our existence." Gold said, and Glynda could feel the eyeroll, even though he was wearing a mask. "Rest assured, I have no interest in the city. And if it will put your mind at ease, I will be with you while my men move towards the other side of the city. That way, if there is any sign of treachery, you can immediately apprehend their commanding officer."

" _That is, assuming that you actually are the commanding officer for this group"_ Glynda thought cynically

Having received this concession from Glynda; Gold turned towards the stairs and began to make his way down them even as he began to study the city around him. "I was expecting the damage to be worse than this."

"The commercial and agricultural districts escaped relatively unscathed;" Glynda responded calmly confident in the snipers hiding on the rooftops, "It was the industrial and residential districts as well as the school itself that received the brunt of the damage. One of our first tasks was to reconnect the commercial district and agricultural district."

"I see; shall we head to the industrial district before making our way toward Beacon? I feel that that would better paint a picture of the damage that was done."

* * *

Miles to the north team RWBY found themselves quickly being loaded into a bullhead along with Qrow and Oscar. Everything had just been so... sudden. They even had to leave Ren and Nora behind at the base.

Yang was the first to voice her concerns. "Uncle Qrow! What is this all about? Nobody told us anything!"

"Calm down Kiddo," Qrow responded; "the reason none of the grunts told you anything is because they don't have high enough clearance to know. Though I barely understand what we're going to be checking out, You'll have to ask Oz about that."

With that statement the collective gazes of Team RWBY quickly fixed upon the young man who was the current host of their former headmaster.

"What?" Oscar exclaimed, "I don't know much either."

Reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose Weiss let out an exasperated sigh, "How many times have we been through this Oscar? We need to speak with your passenger."

"Oh" was all Oscar could say before Ozpin took over.

"Forgive me students, I was distracted by thoughts of the past. What was it you wanted?"

"We wanted to know why we were rushed onboard this bullhead professor." Ruby answered.

"Another shadow from the past I'm afraid. After the fall of the last empire nearly a thousand years ago, the church split in twain. Where the more conservative faction held the standard view of balance, light and dark, good and evil; a radical faction broke away with new tenants. For this faction the goal was not to strike a balance, but rather to try to use the dark, to serve the light. They were convinced that the balance was just a comforting fiction, that anything worth fighting for necessarily disrupted the balance."

"Why haven't we heard of this before, My father made sure I was well versed in the history of Remnant." Weiss spoke "I didn't learn of this schism there or in Beacon."

"Yes; well... The Orthodoxy was rather thorough in wiping all record of the Sigilites and their cult. Regardless this schism lead to a series of inquistorial investigations where the orthodox clergy with the help of the emerging kingdoms hunted down, tried and executed the heretics."

"That can't have been good." Qrow commented.

"Yes, well it seems the cult has managed to survive despite the best efforts of both the Kingdoms and the Clergy; and they've had a millennium to conduct their research."

"They can't be that bad can they?" Yang asked, "Sounds like they just disagree with how to solve problems."

"Miss Long, I have been around for a very long time, and I have seen the consequences of someone trying to control the darkness, they invariably end up being controlled instead."

* * *

The walk to the industrial sector had been rather short from the position near the northern wall for the small entourage Glynda in turn providing guarded answers to Gold's apparently banal questions all the way. Even as they walked Glynda watched the man before her as he wandered easily through the broken terrain of the industrial district. It was almost as if he was looking for something, but what could he be searching for? "I'm surprised you haven't asked anything about the city defenses." Glynda said.

"I haven't done anything yet to gain your trust, you'd be a fool to offer that kind of information to an unknown quantity leading an army that even now is nearing the city. I'd be a fool to not realize that."

This Statement left Glynda Goodwitch silent for a few moments.

"Well now, that's a big wreck." Gold said; spotting the vast remains of an Atlesian warship that had fallen upon

"Yes, we believe it to be the remains of the Atlesian flagship that Roman Torchwick hijacked at the start of the disaster." she responded.

"Then that's especially interesting. We could learn more about just how they orchestrated the invasion. I'll need to bring one of my techs to examine the wreck and see if he thinks anything can be salvaged. You don't mind do you?" he said as he brought out a scroll and paused waiting for her consent.

"I..." Glynda took a moment to consider her options, "perhaps it would be best to save that for after the war."

Gold audibly sighed, "You do have a point; there are more pressing matters. In that case shall we continue onward? I believe I see a clearing up ahead."

"That would be main street, our students put significant effort into reopening that passageway, it now allows the transport of much needed food and other goods between the north and south of the city. Not far from that is the old city hall which now serves as home for a memorial curated by Cardin Winchester another student."

At this revelation Gold paused for a moment, lost in thought, and Glynda could have sworn she heard him say "Who'd have thought that?"

It was only a moment later that Gold spoke up, "I wish to go pay my respects, Ms. Goodwitch. Shall we?"

* * *

After it had become clear that the army that had come from the north wasn't an immediate threat to Vale, Cardin Winchester found himself returning to the Wall as it had become known. After the fall of beacon and the near collapse of the city following the attack at the Vytale Festival, he had lost himself in helping rebuild and defend the city from the constant threat of Grimm, but as the rebuilding efforts began to near completion in the residential sectors, Cardin had found himself having time to think about what had happened. and his thoughts had turned to his lost classmates, all the prospective huntsmen who had lost their lives in that disaster. having had time to think about it he decided to use the ruins of the council building that had been partially demolished by one of the Atlesian warships as they fell from the sky to create a small memorial to commemorate those proud defenders of Vale whose lives had been tragically cut short.

Cardin hadn't expected his small gesture to catch fire the way it did.

The first person to approach was a mouse faunus, timid, and looking like she was ready to bolt any moment from the glares that came her way as she came near his memorial, surprising himself he held his tongue when she spoke up. "Excuse me sir... C-c-can I add my son's picture? He... He was only three." .

As he opened his mouth she looked like she was just about to bolt, and this brought him momentary pause as he considered his words. "Certainly miss...?"

"Souris... Tulip Souris." she had responded before they fell into conversation and little Russ Souris' photo became the first of many faces that weren't at Beacon to join the Wall.

It wasn't long after he had gotten back to work, putting another recovered photo into its new frame that Cardin hear a commotion and looked up, only to see a man in yellow with an expressionless golden mask approach, closely followed by Goodwitch and a few other huntsmen. Cardin watched as the man came to a stop before the wall and stood, head bowed in respect for a few seconds even as the whispers from curious onlookers raged around him. Cardin was about to go back to work, when the man turned around and began engaging the volunteers in conversation, thanking them for their efforts, as he slowly made his way over, when he got to Cardin, and what he said bothered Cardin.

Not because of what he said. Gold, as he later found out that the man was called, simply said "I understand I have you to thank for this Mr. Winchester, Thank you."

No it most certainly wasn't what he said.

It was how he said it.

He sounded sincere.

* * *

A/N: Thank you for reading this chapter, and thank you to my Beta Anand for his efforts in making this more readable and enjoyable.


	4. Greenwood

"To this day, I cannot believe I survived that war. Just before the invasion started everyone was silent. We knew what position we were in. The Vacuoans had us vastly outnumbered, we all knew we were going to die. Still though, we chose to fight. We fought to defend our country, we fought to defend our villages. We fought to defend our families. That last thought is what kept me there. If by being there I could keep my wife and daughter safe; I would gladly sacrifice myself." - LTC (RET.) Glenn Greensborough, Excerpt from his book "For Friend and Family."

"Early the morning of September 13th I heard the first of the fighting, I was stationed in Bridgewater, a small settlement near the northern edge of the border with Vacuo. My brothers and I rushed to the aid of our comrades, but by the time we got there the battle was over. The men had defeated and captured a Vacuoan scouting party. We knew that the main force couldn't be far behind, the commander of our garrison dispatched my squad to guide the prisoners to the rear and request backup for our sector. By the time we got back Bridgewater had been razed to the ground."- Pfc. (RET.) Ron, Rusty, Grall, Excerpt from an interview with Lisa Lavender a month after the start of the invasion.

* * *

"Thank you." He said.  
"If you need any help, let me know." He said, as he handed over a quickly written scroll number.  
As I watched Gold speak with Mr. Winchester, I couldn't shake the feeling that he genuinely felt gratitude toward the young man he was speaking with. In that moment, the mysterious leader of the army just outside the walls... he seemed actually human.  
As the conversations with the volunteers wound down and he left the group of young huntsmen and civilians he seemed reluctant to leave..

"Let's get going, Ms. Goodwitch" He started, addressing me in a formal manner that I now recognized to be a manner wholly uncomfortable for him. "If it is possible I would like to climb what remains of the tower, samples from that dragon could prove invaluable for a project my I have my lead scientist working on.

"You seemed... happier with them." I said, noticing him stiffen for a second, before relaxing.

"Yes... I was. Talking with them reminded meof happier times, back when the world seemed black and white, good against evil, back when it seemed like good would always triumph, and my friends and I would be there leading the charge."

"If only it were that simple." I started. "You lost someone didn't you?" I asked as we made our way towards the ruined school.

"Yes, I only realized how important she was as I lost her." He chuckled darkly. "I suppose the old adage is true. You never do realize the worth of water until the well runs dry."

"I'm sorry for your loss." I said, realizing why he sympathized with all those gathered at the memorial "If you have a picture, I'm sure they'd be happy to add it to the wall."

"Perhaps some day,as of now I don't have anything I could add." He said as I directed him toward a Bullhead landing pad so we could head to the school. "Still, Thank you." he said as he stepped aboard.

He turned to face me, as I boarded myself, "If you'll protect this city from the Grimm, I'll keep the Vacuoans far from your walls." He said as he held his hand toward me. "This city has suffered enough."

* * *

As the Bullhead touched down just outside the wall of the village of Greenwood, a village nestled against a steep cliff face in the midst of thick forest, Ruby was on he feet faster than just about anybody else, curiosity about what this den of iniquity would look like clearly getting to her. As I got up myself the only thing I noted as being out of place for the village overall was size of main street as it lead toward the massive doors carved in the side of the cliff. Lifting Harbinger up from its place beside me and slinging it across my back where it belonged, I took the moment to look around the hold at the others in the hold.

Belladonna was putting some book away, something about Ninjas, I couldn't care less.

Oscar was clearly in control at the moment, given the way he was looking at Ruby, something that was quickly cut short by a cough and glare on my part.

Schnee was taking her time smoothing out wrinkles in her skirt, and checking her weapon.

"This isn't what I expected." Yang's voice drew my attention in her direction.

"Oh? and what did you expect firecracker?" I asked

"I don't know. With how Ozpin talked about them, some burned out hell-scape with Grimm swarming the place or something. Not...This..." She said gesturing out the window at the village as the door began to open to let us off.

I chuckled as I made my way toward the door before calling out: "Anybody not following Ozpin to seek out the Mayor or something, I'm going to the bar." As expected Ruby and Schnee broke to follow after Oscar, while my other niece and her partner followed after me. I caught Schnee's "drunkard" snark, but let it slide, I didn't expect anybody as straight laced as her to understand the true purpose.

As we split in two groups, I quickly identified the nearest pub, the oddly named "Bladder and Bucket", seeing the odd looks my niece and her partner gave it I couldn't help but chuckle, "Places like this have a bit more... Character than bars in the big city do; certainly more imagination than 'the Club' that you destroyed."

As we passed through the doors I noticed that the place was surprisingly busy for this time of day, it was noon damnit!

"That man is... butchering Lady Razzmatazz's new song." our resident kitten mewled as her ears flattened to her head, obviously displeased.

I was about to respond when the Bartender caught my attention, "Hello there, sorry for how busy it is, everybody's celebrating repelling a Grimm attack early this morn."

"No problem barkeep, I'll take the strongest thing you've got." I responded, the crowd making sense now, there were few better ways to boost morale than to party after victory after all.

"I'll take what he's having." Yang said, sitting down on the stool next to me, Belladonna taking the next seat over.

"ID Please." The bartender asked holding his hand out while Yang grumbled about having to prove she was nineteen. Quickly fishing it out of her pocket, she presented it to the bartender so he could examine it before moving on to the last member of our small party. "and what'll you have miss?"

"Milk if you have it, otherwise I'll just take a water."

"Two Mad Watchmen and a Virgin Lady in White coming up." The bartender said before making his way to the fridge at the far end of the bar.

"So why are we here?" Belladonna asked.

"As Yang could probably tell you, bars are a great place to go if you're looking for info, the bartender here probably knows more about what's going on in town than the entire village government. He knows everybody, and every one of them talks with him." I finished up my spiel just as the bartender got back to hand Belladonna her milk. He then pulled two shot glasses and placed them down on the bartop, prior to grabbing a bottle from under the counter a short ways away and pouring us a couple of shots.

Yang swiftly grabbed her shot and downed it in one go, quickly hacking and spluttering clearly not expecting something quite so powerful as that.

" **Gods Dammit**! How can you drink this! It's like acetone!" she said going into yet another coughing fit as her partner tried to help..

"What doesn't kill you makes you drunker." I responded before gulping mine down as well, I would admit, even if only to myself that it was stronger than I expected, It did bring me pause before I spoke again. "There she is... And doesn't she have a rather lovely brassiere, Say barkeep, what's the proof on this?"

"One hundred seventy proof." He responded "So what brings you folks to town?"

"We've heard tell of a group helping out the towns and villages in the area since Beacon fell." I began.

"yer askin about the Sigilites ain't ya; lots of huntsmen have joined their number recently, they've provided order, structure and support everywhere since Beacon. You lookin to join up? They'd be happy to have ya, even if ya don't convert."

"Convert?" this clearly caught Belladonna's attention, so it was no surprise she asked the question. "What do you mean by converting?"

"They're some kind of religious order, but if you want to fight, they're not going to force your hand. You'll want to hurry if you want to catch up though, for the most part they're headed south to fight the Vacuoans, but if you wanna wait around, Brother Fahrenheit should be done debriefing his men with the Mayor soon..."

In hindsight I'm sure the barkeep was startled when the three of us shot up from our chairs, and I tossed a big enough Lien chip to more than cover the tab.

It didn't matter we needed to be there to help the others in case it all went south.

* * *

I watched Gold as he stepped into where Ozpin's office had once been, honoring his request to see it on his own, the petrified form of the Grimm dragon casting a shadow over both of us, I could barely hear his voice as he uttered a couple of words almost inaudible over the wind blowing across us.

"...e's gone...n't know... expected." he gestured for me to follow him to the dragon.

"Have you taken any samples from the Dragon yet?" he asked

"We haven't but General Ironwood's men did, we haven't heard any results from that study though."

"I wouldn't expect you to, those Atlesians tend to play such things close to the chest, Would you mind If I took a couple samples? I have some scientists in my employ who would love to analyze this."

"I... Just don't take a lot, it is beginning to crumble anyway, so you might as well."

"On behalf of the Order and all mankind, let me thank you, Glynda Goodwitch, this may just bring us one step closer to defeating the Grimm Threat, If you'll excuse me, I need to step out of this wind to place a call."

"I'll come with you, it is rather chilly up here."

As we stepped out of the wind Gold quickly fished a Scroll off of wherever he had kept it on his person and placed a short range call.

"Hello Mauve, it's Gold; I just got the all clear to collect a sample."

He waited a moment. "No there was none of that left." he seemed saddened by this fact. "No, we've got the Dragon. How much do we need for IRIS?"

"Thanks, I'll see what I can do." Gold said before turning toward me. "Now just how much can I take? My lead scientist wants as much as he can get his hands on."

"I think five pounds of material is permissible, just be careful about it, I don't want to risk this tower falling down because you got greedy."

"That's a bit less than I was hoping for, but it will have to do. Once again thank you, now I just got word that my men are now making their way around the wall, is there anything we can do for Vale before we continue on south?"

* * *

 **Thanks for reading, I tried a small experiment with this chapter and switched to a predominately first person perspective, it isn't what I'm used to writing in, so please review I would love some feedback.  
Many thanks to my beta reader Anand for checking this chapter over.**


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